Beating the heat: Suburbanites' quirky, creative solutions for coping with soaring temps

For years, "Frozen's" Elsa has been making mischief at the Ellsworth home.

Every summer, the Disney queen "accidentally" freezes Lauren and Caitlin Ellsworth's playthings in blocks of ice, requiring the Schaumburg siblings to "chisel their toys to freedom," father Brian Ellsworth says.

Except for chilly fingers, there have been no injuries, said Ellsworth, who introduced the summer tradition eight years ago, when his daughters were 4 and 2 years old.

The elementary school teacher wasn't the only one devising quirky, creative solutions to combat sweltering temperatures, which for a second day forced some schools to close and cooling centers to open.

School bus driver Maureen O'Leary said she keeps cool by keeping her hair wet. Jeff Morgan puts his son's sheets and blanket in the fridge one hour before bedtime to ensure comfortable slumber.

Buffalo Grove resident Melissa Clobridge goes one step further. She soaks a pashmina in water, wrings it out and freezes it. She then wraps the pashmina around her neck, the top of her head or "any place my body needs it."

Clobridge and her boyfriend learned about the frozen pashmina hack at a summer music festival.

"We would wet the pashminas, wring out the excess water and put it on our bodies," she said, "sometimes even sticking it in the food cooler we had."

Earlier this week, K Janet Orozco observed mail carriers taking advantage of a Hoffman Estates Park District splash pad to beat the heat. Exiting their vehicle, Orozco wrote, they ran to the splash pad, danced around, got "absolutely soaked ... then went back to their mail cars to continue their routes."

Daniel Yu made use of his stockpile of leftover freezer packs, the ones that come with meal kits.

"I have enough of these to build an igloo," he wrote on Facebook, adding that he'll use them to cool his heels. Literally.

Restaurant server Emma Davenport plans to stuff her apron pockets with instant cold packs while serving patio diners.

James Song uses strategically placed fans to help cool his Hoffman Estates split-level home. His home is air-conditioned, but there's a seven- or eight-degree temperature difference between the basement and the upper levels. Song cut that in half by placing one fan at the back of the basement, one at the bottom of the basement stairs and one at the top to draw the cold air into the rest of the house.

Employees of the Palatine-based junk removal company 24-7Junk.com got creative with a working refrigerator they were hauling away, owner Paul Gaudyn said. After loading the appliance onto the truck, two employees took a few minutes to cool off in the empty fridge before proceeding to the next stop, he said.

Crucially, Gaudyn noted that the employees were not alone and did not close the refrigerator door.

Pet owners also are taking action to keep their pals safe. Donna Rizzo and her husband purchased a kiddie pool and filled it with ice to keep their Siberian husky Wrigley comfy.

"He just lays in it like he is in heaven," said the Schaumburg resident, whose 6-year-old rescue gets doggy ice cream on steamy days.

Elsa paid her annual visit to the Ellsworths several weeks ago. Ellsworth assumed his daughters long ago figured out the truth, but neither 12-year-old Lauren, 10-year-old Caitlin nor their parents seems inclined to abandon the tradition.

"As long as they want to do it, I'm doing it," Ellsworth said.